title: A theory of the transition to critical period plasticity: inhibition selectively suppresses spontaneous activity.
abstract: What causes critical periods (CPs) to open? For the best-studied case, ocular dominance plasticity in primary visual cortex in response to monocular deprivation (MD), the maturation of inhibition is necessary and sufficient. How does inhibition open the CP? We present a theory: the transition from pre-CP to CP plasticity arises because inhibition preferentially suppresses responses to spontaneous relative to visually driven input activity, switching learning cues from internal to external sources. This differs from previous proposals in (1) arguing that the CP can open without changes in plasticity mechanisms when activity patterns become more sensitive to sensory experience through circuit development, and (2) explaining not simply a transition from no plasticity to plasticity, but a change in outcome of MD-induced plasticity from pre-CP to CP. More broadly, hierarchical organization of sensory-motor pathways may develop through a cascade of CPs induced as circuit maturation progresses from "lower" to "higher" cortical areas.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Neuroscience and Department of Neuroscience, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA; RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan. Electronic address: taro.toyoizumi@brain.riken.jp.
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toyoizumi
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yazaki-Sugiyama
authors.forename: Nafiseh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Atapour
authors.forename: Takao K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Hensch
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003423:Critical Period, Psychological; D023882:Dominance, Ocular; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology